Find this survey published on the Cercle Psy website, and mentioned in Natacha Polony’s press review of October 22, 2013, on Europe 1.

Marketers are redoubling their creativity to appeal to very young consumers: the aim is for certain mascots, brands and licenses to occupy a significant place in the lives of their budding customers. Why are marketers so interested in our little ones? What strategies are they deploying? And what about ethics?

« The first words a child needs to know are papa, maman and Citroën » announced André Citroën’s 1932 advertisement. For the first time, children were directly targeted by an advertising message. At the time, this spot was a revolution, but today it would leave us speechless. And with good reason: from the cradle onwards, our children have become the obvious prey of a formidable marketing force. « The marketing to which we were accustomed as children has nothing in common with the marketing to which today’s children are exposed. It’s like comparing a pellet gun to a missile. This kind of marketing involves child psychologists and highly advanced technologies, » analyzes Susan Linn, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Chilhood coalition, in her article « The Target Child », published online in Forces magazine. Financial investment in children’s marketing is growing: in 1983, American companies spent one million dollars on it. Today, they spend over $15 billion in the U.S. alone – almost 15,000 times more!

The power to annoy your parents

The reason why marketers are so keen on these budding consumers is that they have considerable unofficial purchasing power.  » Children are seen as marketing targets, whether as prescribers, buyers or future consumers, » explains Eve Hanson, anthropologist and expert at the Centre de Recherche et d’Information des Organisations de Consommateurs (CRIOC). These days, very young children enjoy a certain autonomy within their families. They are no longer mini-adults in the making, but individuals in their own right. Parents now listen to their tastes and interests. This leeway is being exploited by marketers: « The ‘power to annoy’ refers to a child’s ability to nag his or her parents into buying a product they would not otherwise have purchased, » states Habilo Médias, Canadian Centre for Media Education and Digital Literacy, on their website. In 1998, Western Media International conducted a study into how children nagged their parents to buy them a product. However, the aim of the study was not to help parents get rid of their children’s nagging, but rather to help major brands develop the effectiveness of the « nagging factor »! Parents on one side, companies on the other? Not so much.  » The current generation of young parents, familiar with marketing and the consumer society, seems more inclined to give in to their children’s consumer desires than their own parents’ generation, » adds Florence Gourdin, nursery nurse, former nursery director and founder of the organization « Naître et Premiers Pas » (1). According to a 2003 American study by Yankelovich Youth (2), 70% of mothers feel that identifying their children’s favorite brands would make shopping easier.

Another key argument is that today’s infants will be tomorrow’s consumers. Indeed, the emotional bond forged between a child and a brand during the first years of life is perpetuated to such an extent that the adult child naturally adheres to it, either for himself or to introduce it to his own child.  » It’s the power of nostalgia marketing that explains why brands in the children’s universe are often fifty or a hundred years old, » point out Coralie Damay, PhD in Management Sciences from HEC Paris and Assistant Professor at Rouen Business School, and Sylvie Gassmann, Quali Director at Ipsos and founder of KidsPartners, in their book « Quand l’enfant prend ses marques… Il bouscule les conventions » (Editions EMS, 2011). It’s enough to make any marketing director’s eyes twirl euros at the sight of our little ones crawling up and down supermarket shelves. But however interested they may be in our little ones, how do marketers win them over?

T’choupi and Winnie: marketers’ right-hand men

For non-reading children, the use of small, immediately identifiable and attractive characters is common. These include the famous licenses or characters derived from films in the universe of the greats: Cars, Spider-Man, Dora, and of course the famous Hello Kitty, which is a favorite with little girls the world over, and which alone earns Sanrio almost half a billion a year. Not only does the license add emotional value to the product, it also triggers impulse buying. « This loyalty to a particular character can be observed as early as nursery school. I’ve met a few children who have a cuddly toy, the faithful companion they rarely part with, bearing the likeness of Winnie the Pooh, Ratatouille or Nemo. What’s more, plates for young children, whether in day nurseries or at home, are often adorned with well-known characters such as T’choupi or Oui-Oui! » testifies Florence Gourdin. Meaning? Every day, at every mealtime, many young children eat face-to-face with little characters who look naive and angelic, but who hide behind fearsome marketers. A striking paradox. All the more so as the emotional value of the mealtime experience for young children reinforces the emotional bond with the character’s image, to the point of conditioning. Thanks to their success, these licenses continue to multiply, to the point of adorning a whole range of products familiar to children: toothpaste, quilts, candy, underpants, umbrellas… It’s impossible to escape them!  » During the summer of 2009, when I surveyed all the licenses present in stores at back-to-school time (…) I identified no fewer than 196 licenses in hypermarkets! » recalls Coralie Damay.

If you don’t want to buy a license, create a mascot!ante mascot!

But these famous licenses, the Holy Grail of big business, come at a price. So,  » if you don’t have the financial means to own a license, you need to create a brand character, a mascot », suggest Coralie Damay and Sylvie Gassmann in their book for marketing departments. Examples? Lu’s teddy bear, Nesquik’s rabbit, Smacks cereal’s frog… Often anthropomorphized animals, or not. « Mascots are essential. As brand codes, they reflect a vision of the world held by very young children, with a sort of blurred boundary between the real and the imaginary, » analyze Coralie Damay and Sylvie Gassmann. The aim? That these young children identify with this mascot, a true ambassador for the brand, who conveys the values, effects and benefits of its products. And, as you can imagine, the character plays a key role in the relationship that develops between the child and the brand. As Nicolas Montigneaux, a Master of Business Administration and founder and director of Kidekom, an agency specializing in the creation and use of imaginary characters, points out in his book Les marques parlent aux enfants grâce aux personnages imaginaires (Eyrolles, 2002): « the relationship between child and brand is not a one-way communication. It presupposes an exchange, an interactivity. The relationship must be perceived by the child as alive. The brand will mobilize the child, stimulating his curiosity and imagination ». Another objective for companies? Slip their products into the rituals of very young children, forms of routines specific to their emotional development that meet their need for reassurance. This was the challenge taken up by Nesquik when it created Mon Premier Nesquik, a chocolate drink for three-year-olds.  » Nesquik aims to become part of the breakfast ritual, making it more likely to be prescribed when the child grows up, » say Coralie Damay and Sylvie Gassmann.

2-in-1 advertising: targeting children and their parents at the same time!

But to win over a very young child, you first have to convince his parents. After all, up to the age of seven, parents are still very much involved in their consumer choices. So the challenge for these companies is to spread a message that appeals to children as much as to parents, and that is rooted as much in the emotional as in the rational. A technique described as a « shared influence strategy ». Such is the case with Lu’s Petit Écolier sold in bags of two: while the character aims to appeal to children, the product’s nutritional aspect or nomadic nature tends to convince parents. Bingo! But that’s not all. Another well-established strategy is to feature a child rather than the potential buyer, i.e. an adult, in a communication campaign. This is the case with the Peugeot 806 advertisement, which shows a child delighted to be traveling in this comfortable minivan, or the Renault Kangoo advertisement, in which a child refers to a simple drawing of a car shown to him by his dad as a « Kangoo ». Adults are touched, children identify. The objective is achieved. And what about ethics?

Parents and marketers: a shared responsibility?

This type of marketing is highly controversial. Don’t tell my mother I work in children’s marketing, she’ll think I’m a pianist in a brothel! » quips one marketer, who does not wish to be named. « You have to approach child marketing as a social problem. It’s not a family problem, but one that affects the right of children to grow up and the freedom of parents to raise them without their efforts being undermined by in commercial interests and the quest for profit » denounces Susan Linn.  » We have to ask questions on a socio-political level, since we’re dealing directly with the exploitation of children », she adds. In 1999, the use of psychologists by marketers to better target and manipulate children came to public attention when an American group of mental health professionals sent an open letter to the American Psychological Association (APA). Their demand? That the practice be declared unethical.  » It stands to reason that there is no social, ethical or moral justification for targeting children in this way in marketing, » says Susan Linn. Television advertising is at the heart of the controversy: « Children like advertising from an emotional point of view. But it’s not until they’re about eight that most of them can distinguish commercials from other TV programs, » worries Eve Hanson. Young children are therefore the most vulnerable to misleading advertising. The main products incriminated? Toys, sweets and drinks. Some governments are taking action: Quebec prohibits ads aimed at children under 13, while Sweden prohibits ads aimed at children under 12.

« As a mother, I think it’s my job to educate my young children about the shortcomings of our consumer society, to set limits for them and not always give in to the weight of these mascots. On the other hand, I feel that marketers cross the line when they are too intrusive and interfere with my freedom of choice. It’s unacceptable, for example, to see the extent to which ‘cheap’ children’s clothing chains offer almost exclusively licensed products! Christine Adam, mother of Evan and Anaëlle, nursery nurse and director of the « Les Chatons » day nursery in Carrières-sur-Seine.

What about the arguments of marketing players ? Producing products adapted to children is a way of enhancing their value by recognizing their uniqueness, the special place they occupy in our families and in our society, » suggest Coralie Damay and Sylvie Gassmann. They add: « Parents want to make a pact with the brand to help them inculcate these principles or habits in their parents. That’s why the proposal of breaded fish in playful shapes is so well received by parents ». One thing is certain: this debate, involving diametrically opposed human and financial issues, will continue to divide communities. Now it’s up to governments to take a stand.

To find out more…

Nathalie Sapena (Flammarion, 2005). The jackpot child.

Jean-Jacques Urvoy and Annie Llorca (Eyrolles, 2010). Managing a children’s brand.

(1) Organization offering the home services of a nursery nurse who advises and supports young parents from pregnancy through the child’s first years?
(2) International team of corporate marketing researchers, experts and consultants.